What are your tricks for keeping cool in the summer, for those of you without A/C?

Put your feet in a bucket of cold water. It helps instantly.

I keep cool easy. I drive the Jeep with the top down. Or at home I just retreat to the basement and tinker away on car parts or computers with a nice ice-cold Corona or Keiths in hand.

Lots and lots and lots of showers.

I have a fabric tube filled with water absorbing polymers, which is soaked in cool water and worn around my neck. It cools me for a good long time before I need to refresh the tube with more cool water. It REALLY works! One company who sells them on line is called Kool Ties. These aren’t difficult to make at all, there are many tutorials on line. This also is a great thing to send to troops overseas.

run around nekked

Put some ice and water in a bowl or a bucket, dump in some Seabreeze, soak a towel in the water, wring out the towel and wear it around your neck. Rinse, and repeat. :) I think it’s the camphor and the peppermint and eucalyptus oil in the Seabreeze that helps you feel cooler than just the cold water alone.

Popsicles and hanging outside under a tree where it’s shady, plus drinking lots of water.

Wear very little clothing and drink cold drinks. Swim if you have a place for that, or take cool showers when you get hot. Get a part time job and buy an air conditioner!

Fans, we have ceiling fans in every room. They cost a fraction of what an a/c costs to operate. Wear loose cotton clothing. These new tight fitting jeans with stretch in them are hellish in the tropics. I can’t believe women (and now some guys as well) wear them. I love the heat, I would much rather sweat than shiver.

Lots of showers and/or keeping my hair wet. One trick I discovered during the week my a/c was out while living in Roanoke (the thermostat was off the charts, so it was 90+ degrees in the house) is to wet a towel, wring it out so it’s not dripping but plenty wet, then strip naked, lie on your stomach, lay the towel over your back, and point a fan in your direction. It was blissful! Almost like personal air conditioning. :)

Stuff freezer pops in your shorts and rub hand sanitizer all over your body! Instantly refreshing!

I used to spend summers with my grandmother in NC, and she had no AC. During the day, it didn’t matter – I was always playing outside anyway. But at night, I’d have to take a cold shower and then lay on the bed wet, with a fan blowing over me. A few hours later, I’d wake up because of the heat, so I’d repeat.

Eat a watermelon or something

Fans. Lots and lots of fans.

Put some ice, water, and salt in a big bowl and put a fan in front of it. Point said concoction at you.

Or eat a watermelon.

Get a blender and continue to make slushee’s. Those things cool your body core quickly. Also, a mini swamp cooler helps as well.

Here ya go!

Wet silky scarf around the neck. Crocs shoes or similar.